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The Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) passed the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, amid chaotic protests by the Indian National Congress (INC). Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to complete his speech on the legislation. Gandhi said that his microphone was turned off during his speech when he raised the issue of the brutality inflicted on students. He called the Union Home Minister Amit Shah responsible for the police action on protesting students. Countering Rahul’s charge, Union Minister Jitendra Singh told Parliament that no firing took place during the 20 Jul police crackdown on students protesting against the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test paper leak at Jantar Mantar—the protest site. Singh said, ‘It has been clarified repeatedly that no firing took place at all. Tear gas was used.’ On 3 Aug, the Panjab Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly) unanimously passed a resolution against the union government over recurring examination paper leaks and the crackdown on student protests across India. Incidentally, Delhi Police records state that pellet guns were used against the agitating students, while medical reports of those present at the protest site cite gunshot injuries. Veteran eye surgeon Dr. Indu Singh from Amritsar, who spent years treating nearly 450 victims from the Kashmir valley, said that the case of a 19-year-old student who sustained pellet gun injuries, including damage to an eye, revived painful memories for her. She said, ‘The pellets were unlike anything we had encountered before. They could not be removed with the instruments designed for iron particles or glass fragments. We had to redesign our surgical instruments to deal with these injuries. Those modified instruments are still with us today, but I sincerely pray I never have to use them again.’ Davinder Singh Bhangu Shekhupuria, who lost his left eye after being hit by a pellet on 13 Feb 2024, during the farmers’ protest at the Shambhu interstate border between Panjab and Haryana during Farmers Protest 2.0 (2024–25), said, ‘I hope these students don’t have to spend the next two years rebuilding their lives the way I have.’ The injury ended Shekhupuria’s studies, altered his future, and ‘left emotional scars that remain far deeper than the physical wound,’ he says (earlier coverage).
Leader of Opposition mic turn off during his address in Parliament | Photo by The Tribune
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